Anik Khan Pleads National Unity and Peace in “Renegade”

A renegade is synonymous to a traitor, rebel, or outlaw. With all the tragedies that occurred throughout the year, including the San Bernardino shooting, and most recently the nation’s worse mass shooting at an Orlando gay bar, Anik Khan pleads a message of peace and unity in his latest single “Renegade”.

The Bangladesh-born, Queens raised rap artist pulls strings from Benin-native producer Rvdical the Kid, to thread together a Hip-Hop beat that transitions into an afropop sound in the second half of “Renegade”. The artwork was created by Pakistani, Canada-based artist Hatecopy.

Khan leaves us with a couple of fun lyrics, including his proclamation of being the ‘real Curry’ with the shot, or the fact 2014 Ms. America is Indian.

“I just wanted people to feel good and feel like they have a voice,” Khan said to Pigeons and Planes. “Musically I’m mixing parts of the world I was raised around which also (subconsciously) is bringing two narratives closer: black and brown.”

Here’s a part of the voices that Khan hoped to bring out.

We’re living in a world where the first to blame is decided by race. Take the Orlando shooting for example; the first possibility assumed was an ISIS attack, not a homophobe.

Let’s look at the recent tragedies of the kids and animals, one being the child and the deceased gorilla, and the deceased 2-year-old child and the alligator in Florida. At the time, it was brought to my attention the kid in the gorilla incident was black, whose parents received backlash for being irresponsible. In the recent incident with the alligator who possibly drowned the white child, the parents received sorrow and condolences from the media.

What’s synonymous? Irresponsible parents. But people didn’t see it that way with one child being black and the other being white.

Going back to the idea of Anik Khan’s “Renegade”, we have a humanly obligation to find ways to unite and prevent ourselves from seeing color as a determining factor for how we react. It’s a responsibility to respond in the same way we would for anyone, ensuring that even in the darkest moments, we treat everyone with identical respect.